Innate Sword Body

Li Jiusheng had never expected that his Golden Finger would appear when he was already a hundred years old.

He was overjoyed.

He had long since resigned himself to dying of old age in Shangqing Palace, but now he only wanted to say that a hundred was precisely the age to work hard.

To those with accomplished cultivation, a hundred years was no more than the flick of a finger.

Now, he had not only obtained Li Tianxian's [Grass and Wood Sword Technique], but also her Innate Sword Body. This was an unparalleled talent among sword cultivators, naturally compatible with the sword. Others needed three to five years of sword practice, while someone with an Innate Sword Body only needed to practice it once. It was practically being spoon-fed by the heavens.

At the same time, a massive stream of memories and a strange energy flooded into his body. Li Jiusheng closed his eyes and heard the ringing sound of sword hums deep within his soul. They turned into a torrent that washed over every part of his body.

His body was remade. Sword energy scoured his aged, decaying frame, gradually stripping away his old shell and replacing it with an Innate Sword Body.

The process lasted a long time. Only when the moon had descended beyond the tower and the sky had begun to brighten did Li Jiusheng open his eyes and exhale a breath of turbid air.

Clang!

That breath of turbid air transformed into sword energy and struck the floor tiles, actually carving a small crack into one of them.

Li Jiusheng stood up and found his body light, his steps steady and unhurried. The decrepit feeling of old age was gone.

When he came before a mirror, Li Jiusheng found that his appearance had not changed, yet he somehow looked ten years younger. His body brimmed with vitality, like a dying lamp suddenly blazing with light.

"The Innate Sword Body truly lives up to its reputation. This special constitution not only aids cultivation, but can also extend one's lifespan by several centuries." Li Jiusheng was ecstatic. His previous lack of accomplishment in cultivation had been due to his advanced age and poor natural talent, but now that he had an Innate Sword Body, cultivating anew would surely yield twice the results with half the effort.

Li Jiusheng closed his eyes again and examined Li Tianxian's [Grass and Wood Sword Technique].

This sword technique had been created by Li Tianxian herself. As Li Jiusheng examined it, its moves, insights, sword intent, sword essence, and Sword Dao all appeared in his mind one by one.

Li Jiusheng studied them intently and gradually became absorbed, following the Li Tianxian within his sea of consciousness as she demonstrated each move.

The [Grass and Wood Sword Technique] emphasized having no sword in hand, yet a sword in one's heart. Once the sword intent arrived, all things between heaven and earth, every blade of grass and every tree, could become a sword.

Even without a sword in hand, Li Jiusheng could still practice it. Moreover, because he too possessed an Innate Sword Body, getting started with the [Grass and Wood Sword Technique] was exceptionally easy.

With every stance and move, sword energy coiled around his body, guiding the spiritual energy around him into his body and nourishing Li Jiusheng's aged frame.

Fortunately, the Scripture Repository Pavilion was extremely quiet. In the early hours before dawn, no one came by, allowing Li Jiusheng to cultivate without concern.

With the Innate Sword Body, cultivating the [Grass and Wood Sword Technique] posed no difficulty for him and proceeded smoothly. The spiritual energy around the Scripture Repository Pavilion surged wildly toward him, absorbed by Li Jiusheng and transformed into trickles of True Qi. It circulated through his limbs, bones, and extraordinary meridians before finally gathering in his dantian, becoming his own True Qi. It helped him complete the first level of the Houtian Realm, Muscle Tempering, and advance toward Bone Tempering.

In this world, cultivation was divided into Houtian and Xiantian.

The Houtian Realm had three levels: Muscle Tempering, Bone Tempering, and Marrow Tempering.

These three realms were meant to temper the body. At the beginning of cultivation, only a strong body allowed one to travel farther along the path.

The [Evergreen Technique] Li Jiusheng had cultivated before was a wood-element technique. It had little offensive power and could only strengthen the body and extend one's lifespan. He had practiced it for decades, yet had only reached the peak of the Houtian Realm.

However, over the past twenty years, that peak had gradually declined. The reason was simple: he had grown old, and his body had aged. He could only deteriorate step by step, falling from the peak of the Postnatal Triple Layer until he no longer even possessed the first layer.

Now that he was cultivating again, Li Jiusheng had to climb from the first level of the Houtian Realm once more.

But that was no problem.

With the Innate Sword Body and the [Grass and Wood Sword Technique], his cultivation speed was beyond anything Li Jiusheng could have imagined in the past.

As soon as Muscle Tempering was complete, Bone Tempering began. Spiritual energy seeped out from his meridians and muscles, entering his bones, removing impurities and improving his natural foundation. Combined with the Innate Sword Body, his improvement was rapid.

That night, Li Jiusheng's aged body was reborn.

Like a dried-up riverbed flooded with an immense source of water, grass and trees revived in an instant, schools of fish gathered, and all things radiated vigorous life.

Bone Tempering was complete, and he had been reborn.

At daybreak, Li Jiusheng opened his eyes and looked at himself in the mirror, immediately taken aback.

He was still the same person.

Still old.

Yet in the finer details, he was completely different from the night before.

His back was no longer hunched, but straight as a pine or cypress. His skin no longer sagged, but had become firm. His hands and feet were strong, his body radiated abundant vitality, and even his withered, weed-like hair had become resilient. It was still white, but smooth and lustrous. Compared to last night, he looked at least twenty years younger.

"Such changes after only just beginning cultivation... is this the talent of a heaven's chosen?" Li Jiusheng recalled how he had cultivated cautiously for decades, yet his progress had not matched that single pre-dawn session. He could not help but smile bitterly.

He had once heard of the difference between ordinary people and heaven's chosen, but had dismissed it, wondering how great the gap between people could possibly be.

Now, it seemed that the gap between people was even greater than that between heaven and earth.

"One early morning has remade me completely. As long as I continue cultivating, I will surely glimpse the great path to immortality." Ambition rose in Li Jiusheng's heart. Even the legendary state of immortal invincibility could be his.

In his early years, Li Jiusheng had been ambitious. Yet because he only had one life, he had acted with extreme caution. He had not dared to go to dangerous places or do dangerous things, for back then, he had not awakened his Golden Finger.

Because of that, he had missed many opportunities.

"The youth who once drank and laughed with me has now become one of the heaven's chosen."

That year, a young man had invited Li Jiusheng to travel overseas and seek a master. But the sea was turbulent, and the various foreign races guarded its waters, so Li Jiusheng politely declined.

Many years later, that youth fought the foreign races overseas and gained great renown. Li Jiusheng had learned of it by chance.

These days, he often recalled the past.

What if he had not been so cautious back then?

What if he had been a little braver?

Would things be different now?

Those bygone years had been the beginning of a great age of contention. Even today, it remained magnificent, with geniuses and heaven's chosen emerging endlessly, and countless extraordinary figures rising to prominence.

People called this era the Era of Kings Rising. Kings of every path shook the ancient and illuminated the present. The strongest became immortals in the mortal realm or were crowned kings in foreign lands, fighting a hundred battles amid yellow sands and leaving behind innumerable legends.

There were foreign kings who crossed the sea, sweeping through eighty thousand miles of the mortal realm and leaving experts from every path pale-faced in defeat.

There was a woman in red who became an immortal in the mortal realm, her three thousand strands of black hair sweeping up three thousand worlds.

There was a Daoist in purple who wandered through the mortal realm for pleasure, shattering half the mountains and rivers with a raised hand.

And there was Master, who comprehended the Dao in the heavens for eighty years, his cultivation no longer belonging to the mortal realm.

So many heaven's chosen, so many legends. The great Dao was immensely difficult, and yellow sands buried white bones. Li Jiusheng only regretted that he had never taken part in this flourishing age of cultivation. He had thought his days were numbered, yet he unexpectedly awakened his Golden Finger. Now, he was confident he could see for himself what the great Dao spoken of by the world truly was.